Academic literature on the topic 'Predatory-prey systems'

Predator impacts on prey diversity are often studied among higher organisms over short periods, but microbial predator-prey systems allow examination of prey-diversity dynamics over evolutionary timescales. We previously showed that Escherichia coli commonly evolved minority mucoid phenotypes in response to predation by the bacterial predator Myxococcus xanthus by one time point of a coevolution experiment now named MyxoEE-6. Here we examine mucoid frequencies across several MyxoEE-6 timepoints to discriminate between the hypotheses that mucoids were increasing to fixation, stabilizing around equilibrium frequencies, or heading to loss toward the end of MyxoEE-6. In four focal coevolved prey populations, mucoids rose rapidly early in the experiment and then fluctuated within detectable minority frequency ranges through the end of MyxoEE-6, generating frequency dynamics suggestive of negative frequency-dependent selection. However, a competition experiment between mucoid and non-mucoid clones found a predation-specific advantage of the mucoid clone that was insensitive to frequency over the examined range, leaving the mechanism that maintains minority mucoidy unresolved. The advantage of mucoidy under predation was found to be associated with reduced population size after growth (productivity) in the absence of predators, suggesting a tradeoff between productivity and resistance to predation that we hypothesize may reverse mucoid vs non-mucoid fitness ranks within each MyxoEE-6 cycle. We also found that mucoidy was associated with diverse colony phenotypes and diverse candidate mutations primarily localized in the exopolysaccharide operon yjbEFGH. Collectively, our results show that selection from predatory bacteria can generate apparently stable sympatric phenotypic polymorphisms within coevolving prey populations and also allopatric diversity across populations by selecting for diverse mutations and colony phenotypes associated with mucoidy. More broadly, our results suggest that myxobacterial predation increases long-term diversity within natural microbial communities.

Abstract Spider mites (Tetranychidae) are among the most injurious pests of commercial landscape plant nurseries. The introduction of predaceous mites (Phytoseiidae) into nursery crops for control of spider mites can be an effective alternative to pesticides. We sought to evaluate the use of banker plants as a method of rearing and dispersing predatory mites for the control of spider mites in landscape nursery systems. Banker plants include any plant addition that aids in development and dispersal of predators for control of herbivorous pests. Addition of the predatory mite Neoseiulus fallacis (Garman) into spider mite infested arborvitae and rhododendron banker plants held in replicated greenhouse cubicles resulted in more predatory mites dispersing to spider mite infested plants downwind than were originally inoculated. To improve persistence and subsequent dispersal of predatory mites in an arborvitae banker plant, we evaluated the use of adding supplemental prey (spider mites) and applying a portion of the plant foliage with a pyrethroid to provide a refuge for the prey. Reintroduction of prey increased the dispersal duration of N. fallacis but the pyrethroid-based refuge did not. Predatory mites dispersing from arborvitae banker plants of approximately 1.25 m (4.1 ft) tall were collected from receiver plants at 10, 20 and 30 m (10.9, 21.9 and 32.8 yd) down wind. Integration of a banker plant system into a landscape nursery operation is discussed.

Predatory animals have evolved to optimally detect their prey using exquisite sensory systems such as vision, olfaction and hearing. It may not be so surprising that vertebrates, with large central nervous systems, excel at predatory behaviors. More striking is the fact that many tiny insects, with their miniscule brains and scaled down nerve cords, are also ferocious, highly successful predators. For predation, it is important to determine whether a prey is suitable before initiating pursuit. This is paramount since pursuing a prey that is too large to capture, subdue or dispatch will generate a substantial metabolic cost (in the form of muscle output) without any chance of metabolic gain (in the form of food). In addition, during all pursuits, the predator breaks its potential camouflage and thus runs the risk of becoming prey itself. Many insects use their eyes to initially detect and subsequently pursue prey. Dragonflies, which are extremely efficient predators, therefore have huge eyes with relatively high spatial resolution that allow efficient prey size estimation before initiating pursuit. However, much smaller insects, such as killer flies, also visualize and successfully pursue prey. This is an impressive behavior since the small size of the killer fly naturally limits the neural capacity and also the spatial resolution provided by the compound eye. Despite this, we here show that killer flies efficiently pursue natural (Drosophila melanogaster) and artificial (beads) prey. The natural pursuits are initiated at a distance of 7.9 ± 2.9 cm, which we show is too far away to allow for distance estimation using binocular disparities. Moreover, we show that rather than estimating absolute prey size prior to launching the attack, as dragonflies do, killer flies attack with high probability when the ratio of the prey's subtended retinal velocity and retinal size is 0.37. We also show that killer flies will respond to a stimulus of an angular size that is smaller than that of the photoreceptor acceptance angle, and that the predatory response is strongly modulated by the metabolic state. Our data thus provide an exciting example of a loosely designed matched filter to Drosophila, but one which will still generate successful pursuits of other suitable prey.

Biological control is an important ecosystem service for soil and plant health and has been successfully exploited, especially through augmentative biological control programs, for above-ground agricultural pest control often using predatory mites of Mesostigmata. Similar success has not been achieved for below-ground systems. Predatory mites are an important part of soil food webs, in which they have a regulatory impact. While this is mediated by the predator on the prey, recent studies suggest that biocontrol efficiency can be enhanced in the mid to long term for generalist predators by the presence of complementary prey. In below-ground systems, nematodes are an important food source and numerous species of predatory mites in soil may prefer them. Thus, nematodes are a viable and accessible alternative prey for these natural enemies. Our aim was to review the studies on mite-nematode trophic interactions and how these interactions affect the regulatory activity of predatory mites in soil. We found ca. 170 publications reporting a predator-prey interaction. The majority of the studies were conducted in the laboratory (149 studies), but important correlations between nematode and mite densities have been observed in greenhouses and in the open field. Most reports involved free-living nematodes (FLN), followed by plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN) and finally animal-parasitic nematodes (APN). These reports are for Astigmatina, Endeostigmata, Prostigmata, Oribatida (non-Astigmatina) and Mesostigmata, the latter group being the one in which most nematophagous species are known. The family with the most reports of nematophagy is Ascidae (46 species), followed by Macrochelidae and Laelapidae (both with 30 species). In many cases, a positive effect on reproductive parameters and developmental times of mite species has been observed with a nematode-based diet, especially FLN. Although still scarce, studies on species of Laelapidae, Macrochelidae, Parasitidae and Rhodacaridae have shown that supplementing FLN in the diet can favor reproduction and development, even though preference may change at different stages of development. Also, recent studies have shown that some organic amendments can increase the density and diversity of mites, FLN or both, enhancing top down forces by predatory mites in the soil food web. Although some steps have been taken, future studies should focus on transferring laboratory research to field and semi-field conditions. For this, a multidisciplinary approach is essential.

ABSTRACT Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is a species of unique obligate predatory bacteria that utilize gram-negative bacteria as prey. Their life cycle alternates between a motile extracellular phase and a growth phase within the prey cell periplasm. The mechanism of prey cell invasion and the genetic networks and regulation during the life cycle have not been elucidated. The obligate predatory nature of the B. bacteriovorus life cycle suggests the use of this bacterium in potential applications involving pathogen control but adds complexity to the development of practical genetic systems that can be used to determine gene function. This work reports the development of a genetic technique for allelic exchange or gene inactivation by construction of in-frame markerless deletion mutants including the use of a counterselectable marker in B. bacteriovorus. A suicide plasmid carrying the sacB gene for counterselection was used to inactivate the strB gene in B. bacteriovorus HD100 by an in-frame deletion. Despite the inactivation of the strB gene, B. bacteriovorus was found to retain resistance to high concentrations of streptomycin. The stability of a plasmid for use in complementation experiments was also investigated, and it was determined that pMMB206 replicates autonomously in B. bacteriovorus. Development of this practical genetic system now facilitates the study of B. bacteriovorus at the molecular level and will aid in understanding the regulatory networks and gene function in this fascinating predatory bacterium.

The study of animal behaviour is important for both ecology and ecotoxicology, yet research in these two fields is currently developing independently. Here, we synthesize the available knowledge on drug-induced behavioural alterations in fish, discuss potential ecological consequences and report results from an experiment in which we quantify both uptake and behavioural impact of a psychiatric drug on a predatory fish ( Perca fluviatilis ) and its invertebrate prey ( Coenagrion hastulatum ). We show that perch became more active while damselfly behaviour was unaffected, illustrating that behavioural effects of pharmaceuticals can differ between species. Furthermore, we demonstrate that prey consumption can be an important exposure route as on average 46% of the pharmaceutical in ingested prey accumulated in the predator. This suggests that investigations of exposure through bioconcentration, where trophic interactions and subsequent bioaccumulation of exposed individuals are ignored, underestimate exposure. Wildlife may therefore be exposed to higher levels of behaviourally altering pharmaceuticals than predictions based on commonly used exposure assays and pharmaceutical concentrations found in environmental monitoring programmes.

AbstractIn vertebrates, it has been shown that binocular visual experience is necessary to develop normal spatial vision. We have investigated whether this is also true for an invertebrate, the praying mantis. The praying mantis is a predatory insect in which prey localization involves the use of binocular disparities. We raised mantids which had one eye occluded throughout development and tested monocular visual fixation and binocular distance estimation in the adult animals. The results revealed that both fixation and prey catching behavior were normally functional in the monocularly reared animals. Thus we conclude that, in mantids, binocular vision is based on a fixed mode of development.

Predator–prey interactions heavily influence the dynamics of many ecosystems. An increasing body of evidence suggests that rapid evolution and coevolution can alter these interactions, with important ecological implications, by acting on traits determining fitness, including reproduction, anti-predatory defence and foraging efficiency. However, most studies to date have focused only on evolution in the prey species, and the predator traits in (co)evolving systems remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated changes in predator traits after approximately 600 generations in a predator–prey (ciliate–bacteria) evolutionary experiment. Predators independently evolved on seven different prey species, allowing generalization of the predator's evolutionary response. We used highly resolved automated image analysis to quantify changes in predator life history, morphology and behaviour. Consistent with previous studies, we found that prey evolution impaired growth of the predator, although the effect depended on the prey species. By contrast, predator evolution did not cause a clear increase in predator growth when feeding on ancestral prey. However, predator evolution affected morphology and behaviour, increasing size, speed and directionality of movement, which have all been linked to higher prey search efficiency. These results show that in (co)evolving systems, predator adaptation can occur in traits relevant to foraging efficiency without translating into an increased ability of the predator to grow on the ancestral prey type.

Some predators sidestep environments that render them conspicuous to the sensory systems of prey. However, these challenging environments are unavoidable for certain predators. Stenolemus giraffa is an assassin bug that feeds on web-building spiders; the web is the environment in which this predator finds its prey, but it also forms part of its preys' sophisticated sensory apparatus, blurring the distinction between environment and sensory systems. Stenolemus giraffa needs to break threads in the web that obstruct its path to the spiders, and such vibrations can alert the spiders. Using laser vibrometry, this study demonstrates how S. giraffa avoids alerting the spiders during its approach. When breaking threads, S. giraffa attenuates the vibrations produced by holding on to the loose ends of the broken thread and causing them to sag prior to release. In addition, S. giraffa releases the loose ends of a broken thread one at a time (after several seconds or minutes) and in this way spaces out the production of vibrations in time. Furthermore, S. giraffa was found to maximally reduce the amplitude of vibrations when breaking threads that are prone to produce louder vibrations. Finally, S. giraffa preferred to break threads in the presence of wind, suggesting that this araneophagic insect exploits environmental noise that temporarily impairs the spiders' ability to detect vibrations. The predatory behaviour of S. giraffa seems to be adaptated in intricate manner for bypassing the sophisticated sensory systems of web-building spiders. These findings illustrate how the physical characteristics of the environment, along with the sensory systems of prey can shape the predatory strategies of animals.

Scalar hyperbolic balance laws in several space dimensions play a central role in this thesis. First, we deal with a new class of mixed parabolic-hyperbolic systems on all R^n: we obtain the basic well-posedness theorems, devise an ad hoc numerical algorithm, prove its convergence and investigate the qualitative properties of the solutions. The extension of these results to bounded domains requires a deep understanding of the initial boundary value problem (IBVP) for hyperbolic balance laws. The last part of the thesis provides rigorous estimates on the solution to this IBVP, under precise regularity assumptions. In Chapter 1 we introduce a predator-prey model. A non local and non linear balance law is coupled with a parabolic equation: the former describes the evolution of the predator density, the latter that of prey. The two equations are coupled both through the convective part of the balance law and the source terms. The drift term is a non local function of the prey density. This allows the movement of predators to be directed towards the regions where the concentration of prey is higher. We prove the well-posedness of the system, hence the existence and uniqueness of solution, the continuous dependence from the initial data and various stability estimates. In Chapter 2 we devise an algorithm to compute approximate solutions to the mixed system introduced above. The balance law is solved numerically by a Lax-Friedrichs type method via dimensional splitting, while the parabolic equation is approximated through explicit finite-differences. Both source terms are integrated by means of a second order Runge-Kutta scheme. The key result in Chapter 2 is the convergence of this algorithm. The proof relies on a careful tuning between the parabolic and the hyperbolic methods and exploits the non local nature of the convective part in the balance law. This algorithm has been implemented in a series of Python scripts. Using them, we obtain information about the possible order of convergence and we investigate the qualitative properties of the solutions. Moreover, we observe the formation of a striking pattern: while prey diffuse, predators accumulate on the vertices of a regular lattice. The analytic study of the system above is on all R^n. However, both possible biological applications and numerical integrations suggest that the boundary plays a relevant role. With the aim of studying the mixed hyperbolic-parabolic system in a bounded domain, we noticed that for balance laws known results lack some of the estimates necessary to deal with the coupling. In Chapter 3 we then focus on the IBVP for a general balance law in a bounded domain. We prove the well-posedness of this problem, first with homogeneous boundary condition, exploiting the vanishing viscosity technique and the doubling of variables method, then for the non homogeneous case, mainly thanks to elliptic techniques. We pay particular attention to the regularity assumptions and provide rigorous estimates on the solution.

Predator-prey interactions form an essential part of ecological communities, determining the flow of energy from autotrophs to top predators. The rate of predation is a key regulator of that energy flow, and that rate is determined by the functional response. Functional responses themselves are emergent ecological phenomena – they reflect morphology, behavior, and physiology of both predator and prey and are both outcomes of evolution and the source of additional evolution. The functional response is thus a concept that connects many aspects of biology from behavioral ecology to eco-evolutionary dynamics to food webs, and as a result, the functional response is the key to an integrative science of predatory ecology. In this book, I provide a synthesis of research on functional responses, starting with the basics. I then break the functional response down into foraging components and connect these to the traits and behaviors that connect species in food webs. I conclude that contrary to appearances, we know very little about functional responses, and additional work is necessary for us to understand how environmental change and management will impact ecological systems

The western flower thrips (WFT), Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), is a serious widespread pest of vegetable and ornamental crops worldwide. Chemical control for Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) on floriculture or vegetable crops can be difficult because this pest has developed resistance to many insecticides and also tends to hide within flowers, buds, and apical meristems. Predatory bugs, predatory mites, and entomopathogenic nematodes are commercially available in both the US and Israel for control of WFT. Predatory bugs, such as Orius species, can suppress high WFT densities but have limited ability to attack thrips within confined plant parts. Predatory mites can reach more confined habitats than predatory bugs, but kill primarily first-instar larvae of thrips. Entomopathogenic nematodes can directly kill or sterilize most thrips stages, but have limited mobility and are vulnerable to desiccation in certain parts of the crop canopy. However, simultaneous use of two or more agents may provide both effective and cost efficient control of WFT through complimentary predation and/or parasitism. The general goal of our project was to evaluate whether suppression of WFT could be enhanced by inundative or inoculative releases of Orius predators with either predatory mites or entomopathogenic nematodes. Whether pest suppression is best when single or multiple biological control agents are used, is an issue of importance to the practice of biological control. For our investigations in Texas, we used Orius insidiosus(Say), the predatory mite, Amblyseius degeneransBerlese, and the predatory mite, Amblyseius swirskii(Athias-Henriot). In Israel, the research focused on Orius laevigatus (Fieber) and the entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema felpiae. Our specific objectives were to: (1) quantify the spatial distribution and population growth of WFT and WFT natural enemies on greenhouse roses (Texas) and peppers (Israel), (2) assess interspecific interactions among WFT natural enemies, (3) measure WFT population suppression resulting from single or multiple species releases. Revisions to our project after the first year were: (1) use of A. swirskiiin place of A. degeneransfor the majority of our predatory mite and Orius studies, (2) use of S. felpiaein place of Thripinema nicklewoodi for all of the nematode and Orius studies. We utilized laboratory experiments, greenhouse studies, field trials and mathematical modeling to achieve our objectives. In greenhouse trials, we found that concurrent releases of A.degeneranswith O. insidiosusdid not improve control of F. occidentalis on cut roses over releases of only O. insidiosus. Suppression of WFT by augmentative releases A. swirskiialone was superior to augmentative releases of O. insidiosusalone and similar to concurrent releases of both predator species on cut roses. In laboratory studies, we discovered that O. insidiosusis a generalist predator that ‘switches’ to the most abundant prey and will kill significant numbers of A. swirskiior A. degeneransif WFTbecome relatively less abundant. Our findings indicate that intraguild interactions between Orius and Amblyseius species could hinder suppression of thrips populations and combinations of these natural enemies may not enhance biological control on certain crops. Intraguild interactions between S. felpiaeand O. laevigatus were found to be more complex than those between O. insidiosusand predatory mites. In laboratory studies, we found that S. felpiaecould infect and kill either adult or immature O. laevigatus. Although adult O. laevigatus tended to avoid areas infested by S. felpiaein Petri dish arenas, they did not show preference between healthy WFT and WFT infected with S. felpiaein choice tests. In field cage trials, suppression of WFT on sweet-pepper was similar in treatments with only O. laevigatus or both O. laevigatus and S. felpiae. Distribution and numbers of O. laevigatus on pepper plants also did not differ between cages with or without S. felpiae. Low survivorship of S. felpiaeafter foliar applications to sweet-pepper may explain, in part, the absence of effects in the field trials. Finally, we were interested in how differential predation on different developmental stages of WFT (Orius feeding on WFT nymphs inhabiting foliage and flowers, nematodes that attack prepupae and pupae in the soil) affects community dynamics. To better understand these interactions, we constructed a model based on Lotka-Volterra predator-prey theory and our simulations showed that differential predation, where predators tend to concentrate on one WFT stage contribute to system stability and permanence while predators that tend to mix different WFT stages reduce system stability and permanence.